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This dystopian tale from Robert Hugh Benson offers a unique spiritual twist on typical end-of-the-world narratives: in Benson's imagined future, it's the Catholic Church that offers the only respite from encroaching doom. Whatever your religious beliefs may be, Lord of the World is a gripping must-read for fans of novels like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984.

Belief in God has been replaced by secular humanism in this gripping tale of the apocalypse. Protestantism is over, Catholicism is driven underground, and the Eastern religions have merged into a single pantheistic creed that poses an ongoing military threat to the West. Without a spiritual dimension to their lives, people are literally bored to death, choosing legal euthanasia rather than an empty existence. A charismatic leader arises amid this culture of despair, and in their eagerness for change, the citizens support the coming of the Antichrist and the end of days.One of the first works of modern dystopic fiction, this 1907 novel is remarkably prescient in its depiction of a technologically advanced society that rushes headlong toward its own destruction. Author Robert Hugh Benson, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a convert to Roman Catholicism, wrote this dark parable in response to the science-fiction novels of H. G. Wells, which portrayed utopian societies in terms of atheism and one-world government. The novel has been hailed as prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis, among others.

In or about the year 2000, humanity has reached "that incredibly lofty goal to which its intrinsic efforts can carry it" — but rejected everything but crass materialism. Technology has advanced to the point where no one need work for a living, while the social sciences have achieved a smoothly-running if almost unbearably sterile social order. Formal religious beliefs except for Catholicism have been uprooted and eliminated as coherent systems, and the Catholic Church has been completely discredited in the eyes of the world, finally being outlawed. The result is everything the late Victorians and Edwardians believed would bring human happiness — and which brings nothing but the advent of new superstitions, despair, and the end of the world ... maybe.

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

It was a very silent room in which the three men sat, furnished with the extreme common sense of the period. It had neither window nor door; for it was now sixty years since the world, recognising that space is not confined to the surface of the globe, had begun to burrow in earnest. Old Mr. Templeton’s house stood some forty feet below the level of the Thames embankment, in what was considered a somewhat commodious position, for he had only a hundred yards to walk before he reached the station of the Second Central Motor-circle, and a quarter of a mile to the volor-station at Blackfriars. He was over ninety years old, however, and seldom left his house now. The room itself was lined throughout with the delicate green jade-enamel prescribed by the Board of Health, and was suffused with the artificial sunlight discovered by the great Reuter forty years before; it had the colour-tone of a spring wood, and was warmed and ventilated through the classical frieze grating to the exact temperature of 18 degrees Centigrade. Mr. Templeton was a plain man, content to live as his father had lived before him.Aeterna Press

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

To the casual Londoner who lounged, intolerant and impatient, at the blacksmith’s door while a horse was shod, or a cracked spoke mended, Great Keynes seemed but a poor backwater of a place, compared with the rush of the Brighton road eight miles to the east from which he had turned off, or the whirling cauldron of London City, twenty miles to the north, towards which he was travelling.Aeterna Press

Very nearly the whole of this book is sober historical fact; and by far the greater number of the personages named in it once lived and acted in the manner in which I have presented them. My hero and my heroine are fictitious; so also are the parents of my heroine, the father of my hero, one lawyer, one woman, two servants, a farmer and his wife, the landlord of an inn, and a few other entirely negligible characters. But the family of the FitzHerberts passed precisely through the fortunes which I have described; they had their confessors and their one traitor (as I have said). Mr. Anthony Babington plotted, and fell, in the manner that is related; Mary languished in Chartley under Sir Amyas Paulet; was assisted by Mr. Bourgoign; was betrayed by her secretary and Mr. Gifford, and died at Fotheringay; Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Simpson received their vocations, passed through their adventures; were captured at Padley, and died in Derby. Father Campion (from whose speech after torture the title of the book is taken) suffered on the rack and was executed at Tyburn. Mr. Topcliffe tormented the Catholics that fell into his hands; plotted with Mr. Thomas FitzHerbert, and bargained for Padley (which he subsequently lost again) on the terms here drawn out.Aeterna Press

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

Gradually memory and consciousness once more reasserted themselves, and he became aware that he was lying in bed. But this was a slow process of intense mental effort, and was as laboriously and logically built up of premises and deductions as were his theological theses learned twenty years before in his seminary. There was the sheet below his chin; there was a red coverlet (seen at first as a blood-coloured landscape of hills and valleys); there was a ceiling, overhead, at first as remote as the vault of heaven. Then, little by little, the confused roaring in his ears sank to a murmur. It had been just now as the sound of brazen hammers clanging in reverberating caves, the rolling of wheels, the tramp of countless myriads of men.Aeterna Press

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

These two young men were sitting in one of the most pleasant places in all the world in which to sit on a summer evening—in a ground-floor room looking out upon the Great Court of Trinity College, Cambridge. It was in that short space of time, between six and seven, during which the Great Court is largely deserted. The athletes and the dawdlers have not yet returned from field and river; and Fellows and other persons, young enough to know better, who think that a summer evening was created for the reading of books, have not yet emerged from their retreats. A white-aproned cook or two moves across the cobbled spaces with trays upon their heads; a tradesman’s boy comes out of the corner entrance from the hostel; a cat or two stretches himself on the grass; but, for the rest, the court lies in broad sunshine; the shadows slope eastwards, and the fitful splash and trickle of the fountain asserts itself clearly above the gentle rumble of Trinity Street.Aeterna Press

Catholic priest-turned-prolific-novelist Robert Hugh Benson offers a thrilling ride through early twentieth-century occultism in The Necromancers. When a pair of young lovers is separated by an untimely death, the bereaved survivor turns his back on his faith and begins to dabble in necromancy and other occult rituals to reestablish contact with his loved one. Will he survive his deadly experiments? Read The Necromancers to find out.

In this book, Charles Ritchie looks back at some of the characters that peopled his childhood and youth, in the years before his brilliant career in Canada’s diplomatic corps began. In these essays we are introduced to his uncles, Harry “Bimbash” Stewart and the dashing, doomed Charlie Stewart; to his indomitable mother; to his mad cousin Gerald; to the newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook; to his college friend Billy Coster, who threw away wealth and a secure future; and to a host of others. With his usual unerring eye and elegant prose, Charles Ritchie brings them all to life again, with affection and wit.

An early entry in what would become known as the horror genre, this spellbinding classic has captivated readers for generations

Following the death of his fiancée, Laurie Baxter becomes consumed by an obsession with the supernatural. Attempting to reach his deceased bride, he attends rituals and séances, delving ever deeper into the dark embrace of the occult. But instead of reconnecting with his lost love, Laurie is brought into contact with forces far more sinister.

Written by a Catholic priest, The Necromancers is a chilling warning against dabbling in the dark arts.

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She was a small, delicate-looking old lady, very true to type indeed, with the silvery hair of the devout widow crowned with an exquisite lace cap, in a filmy black dress, with a complexion of precious china, kind shortsighted blue eyes, and white blue-veined hands busy now upon needlework. She bore about with her always an atmosphere of piety, humble, tender, and sincere, but as persistent as the gentle sandalwood aroma which breathed from her dress. Her theory of the universe, as the girl who watched her now was beginning to find out, was impregnable and unapproachable. Events which conflicted with it were either not events, or they were so exceptional as to be negligible. If she were hard pressed she emitted a pathetic peevishness that rendered further argument impossible.Aeterna Press

Charles Ritchie, one of Canada’s most distinguished diplomats, was a born diarist, a man whose daily record of his life is so well written that it leaps from the page.

In wartime England, Ritchie, as Second Secretary at the Canadian High Commission, served as private secretary to Vincent Massey, whose second-in-command was Lester B. Pearson, future prime minister of Canada. In a perfect position to observe both statecraft and the London social whirl that continued even during the war, Ritchie provides a fascinating, perceptive, and (surprisingly) humorous picture of the London Blitz – the people in the parks, the shabby streets, the heightened love affairs – and the vagaries of the British at war. There are also glimpses of the great, and portraits of noted artists and writers that he knew well.

A vivid document of a period and a wonderful piece of writing, The Siren Years has become a classic.

In the fourth volume of selections from his delightfully wise and witty diaries, we see Charles Ritchie, the seasoned (but never stuffy) diplomat, in his last two major postings – as Canadian Ambassador to Washington and as Canadian High Commissioner to London. Full of anecdotes rather than briefing papers (was JFK really “shooing” the new Canadian ambassador out of his office?), Ritchie’s diaries are at their amusing best.

Charles Ritchie’s first volume of diaries, The Siren Years, created a sensation when it was published in 1974. Besides winning the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction, it was hailed by reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. An Appetite for Life, his second volume, first published in 1977, deals with his youth in Halifax and his career at Oxford – the years when Charles Ritchie turned from a callow, blundering youth into a callow, blundering young man.

As these diaries show, Charles Ritchie had a sharp eye, a keen ear, a highly developed sense of the absurd, and – despite his unhappy knack of landing ?at on his face – a thorough “appetite for life.”

This is not only a hilariously funny book, but it presents a vivid picture of two worlds – Halifax and Oxford in the mid-twenties – that are now long gone. It also introduces us to an astonishing range of characters, but the most astonishing of all is the young Charles Ritchie himself.

The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world, are child’s play compared with the mysteries of nature. He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was every excuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements.Aeterna Press

The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world, are child’s play compared with the mysteries of nature. He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was every excuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements.Aeterna Press

Gradually memory and consciousness once more reasserted themselves, and he became aware that he was lying in bed. But this was a slow process of intense mental effort, and was as laboriously and logically built up of premises and deductions as were his theological theses learned twenty years before in his seminary. There was the sheet below his chin; there was a red coverlet (seen at first as a blood-coloured landscape of hills and valleys); there was a ceiling, overhead, at first as remote as the vault of heaven. Then, little by little, the confused roaring in his ears sank to a murmur. It had been just now as the sound of brazen hammers clanging in reverberating caves, the rolling of wheels, the tramp of countless myriads of men.Aeterna Press

In his first book, The Siren Years, the public was introduced to Charles Ritchie as a young diplomat serving with the Canadian Embassy in wartime London. In Diplomatic Passport, we follow his career as he climbs the rungs of the diplomatic-service ladder – as an advisor to the Canadian Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946; as a Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, where his friends celebrate Ritchie Week – to the city’s surprise; as Assistant, Deputy, and Acting Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in Ottawa; as Canadian Ambassador to Bonn, where he finds himself reciting Little Red Riding Hood in German at a state dinner; and as Permanent Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations.

One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year — Winner of a Christopher Award — Winner of a Catholic Press Association Book Award Meet some surprising friends of God in this warm and wonderful memoir James Martin has led an entirely modern life: from a lukewarm Catholic childhood, to an education at the Wharton School of Business, to the executive fast track at General Electric, to ministry as a Jesuit priest, to a busy media career in Manhattan. But at every step he has been accompanied by some surprising friends—the saints of the Catholic Church. For many, these holy men and women remain just historical figures. For Martin, they are intimate companions. "They pray for me, offer me comfort, give me examples of discipleship, and help me along the way," he writes. The author is both engaging and specific about the help and companionship he has received. When his pride proves trouble­some, he seeks help from Thomas Merton, the monk and writer who struggled with egotism. In sickness he turns to Thérèse of Lisieux, who knew about the boredom and self-pity that come with illness. Joan of Arc shores up his flagging courage. Aloysius Gonzaga deepens his compassion. Pope John XXIII helps him to laugh and not take life too seriously. Martin's inspiring, witty, and always fascinating memoir encompasses saints from the whole of Christian history— from St. Peter to Dorothy Day. His saintly friends include Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Mother Teresa, and other beloved figures. They accompany the author on a lifelong pilgrimage that includes stops in a sunlit square of a French town, a quiet retreat house on a New England beach, the gritty housing projects of inner-city Chicago, the sprawling slums of Nairobi, and a gorgeous Baroque church in Rome. This rich, vibrant, stirring narrative shows how the saints can help all of us find our way in the world. "In a cross between Holden Caulfield and Thomas Merton, James Martin has written one of the best spiritual memoirs in years." —Robert Ellsberg, author of All Saints "It isn't often that a new and noteworthy book comes along in this genre, but we have reason to celebrate My Life with the Saints. It is earmarked for longevity. It will endure as an important and uncommon contribution to religious writing." —Doris Donnelly, America "An account . . . that is as delightful as it is instructive." —First Things "In delightful prose Martin recounts incidents, both perilous and funny, that have prompted him to turn to the saints, and in doing so shows us a new way of living out a devotion that is as old and universal as the Church." —Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, Fordham University "An outstanding and often hilarious memoir." —Publishers Weekly "Martin's final word for us is as Jungian as it is Catholic: God does not want us to be like Mother Teresa or Dorothy Day. God wants us to be most fully ourselves." —The Washington Post Book World

Probably the finest book ever written about the Rosary; appeals to all ages. Shows the great spiritual power of the Rosary, which is appreciated by few. Tells why the Rosary is the most important private prayer. Canon William says of De Montfort's book, "It goes far beyond mere research. We might say that it contains everything that can be said about the Rosary -- its content and form, its real worth, about the instruction necessary for its appreciation and use." Over 5,300,000 sold!

A revisionist new biography reintroducing readers to one of the most subversive figures in English history—the man who sought to reform a nation, dared to defy his king, and laid down his life to defend his sacred honor

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KANSAS CITY STAR AND BLOOMBERG

Becket’s life story has been often told but never so incisively reexamined and vividly rendered as it is in John Guy’s hands. The son of middle-class Norman parents, Becket rose against all odds to become the second most powerful man in England. As King Henry II’s chancellor, Becket charmed potentates and popes, tamed overmighty barons, and even personally led knights into battle. After his royal patron elevated him to archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, however, Becket clashed with the King. Forced to choose between fealty to the crown and the values of his faith, he repeatedly challenged Henry’s authority to bring the church to heel. Drawing on the full panoply of medieval sources, Guy sheds new light on the relationship between the two men, separates truth from centuries of mythmaking, and casts doubt on the long-held assumption that the headstrong rivals were once close friends. He also provides the fullest accounting yet for Becket’s seemingly radical transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout man of God.

Here is a Becket seldom glimpsed in any previous biography, a man of many facets and faces: the skilled warrior as comfortable unhorsing an opponent in single combat as he was negotiating terms of surrender; the canny diplomat “with the appetite of a wolf” who unexpectedly became the spiritual paragon of the English church; and the ascetic rebel who waged a high-stakes contest of wills with one of the most volcanic monarchs of the Middle Ages. Driven into exile, derided by his enemies as an ungrateful upstart, Becket returned to Canterbury in the unlikeliest guise of all: as an avenging angel of God, wielding his power of excommunication like a sword. It is this last apparition, the one for which history remembers him best, that will lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the king’s minions—a grisly episode that Guy recounts in chilling and dramatic detail.

An uncommonly intimate portrait of one of the medieval world’s most magnetic figures, Thomas Becket breathes new life into its subject—cementing for all time his place as an enduring icon of resistance to the abuse of power.

Book of Saints Who are the saints, why are the lives of saints important for children, and what can children learn from lives and actions? In Loyola Kids Book of Saints, the first in the Loyola Kids series, best-selling author Amy Welborn answers these questions with exciting and inspiring stories, real-life applications, and important information about these heroes of the church. This inspiring collection of saints' stories explains how saints become saints, why we honor them, and how they help us even today. Featuring more than sixty saints from throughout history and from all over the world, Loyola Kids Book of Saints introduces children to these wonderful role models and heroes of the church. Ages 8-12.

This study edition is designed to assist contemporary readers to apply the spiritual insights of Story of a Soul to their lives. It provides introductions, reflections and discussion questions for each chapter of the text.

Shortly before she died, Thérèse Martin predicted that her “Little Way” to holiness would be an inspiration for countless people. Time has proved Thérèse’s prediction to be true. Since its publication, Story of a Soul has been translated into over fifty languages. It is acknowledged to be one of the great spiritual testimonies of all times and has inspired millions of readers from all walks of life.

Father John Clarke’s acclaimed translation, first published in 1975 and now accepted as the standard throughout the English-speaking world, is a faithful and unaffected rendering of Thérèse’s own words from the original manuscripts.

— Includes an Active Index, Table of Contents and Layered NCX Navigation

— Includes Illustrations by Gustave Dore

Publisher: Available in Paperback:

ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-439-3

Publisher: This is an abridged version of "The Lives of the Saints: Complete Edition" and x13 Volume Paperback editions by the Publisher.

A timeless classic every Christian can appreciate, this volume has been hailed as the authority on Christian saints for more than two centuries. In addition to material in Reverend Butler's original text, this edition includes new saints and those whose feasts are special to the United States. In the text's brief, highly readable entries, readers can find a wealth of knowledge on the lives and deeds of individual saints, as well as their ecclesiastical and historical importance since canonization. Arranged day by day, the text corresponds to the months of the year and contains entries on saints with feast days in that month. A valuable aid to devotion and a rich source of historical information, Butler's Lives of the Saints, through its concise biographies, remains a helpful and authoritative reference.

The life of Saint Brychan shows all his family and his wives. Lineage of his and his wives are examined, and a listing of all his children (over 40). A study of all his ancestors who are Saints, as well as all his descendents for about 5 generations who are Saints. He and his wives relationships to Saint Joseph, James first Bishop of Jerusalem, and Saint Joseph of Arimathea is studied. His descendents who are Saints lineage and their descendents are studied. Other families of Saints are shown, and there are about 40 pages of charts and text about the biblical times. In the book there are 65 ancestral charts, and many lineages shown. Lines that continued from Saint Brychan are included to about 1000 ad. and some to 1400 ad. in an attempt for the reader to find links to his or her ancestry. A gedcom is offered (computer file used to tie in the lineages used in the research)at the end of the book with over 375 Saints and 50 Popes lineages or descents contained in the file.

Meditations with Teresa of Avila invites you to explore the depths of your inner being by following the pathway of the beloved mystic Teresa of Avila. Born into Spanish nobility in 1515, Teresa entered the monastic life at twenty and was eventually guided to reform the Carmelite Order. She blended a rich mystical inner life with everyday work in the secular world, and she remains an unparalleled source of inspiration for living deeply and effectively in both realms. Always concerned with the practical application of her beliefs, Teresa wrestled with questions of worth and place. She sought to understand what her visions and experiences meant and whether she was doing all she could for the divinity she loved and served. Her ideas were rejected by many of her contemporaries, and she struggled against the many male clerics who tried to invalidate her mystical experiences. Her spiritual exploration formed the basis of the prolific body of writing she left to the world. Megan Don makes Teresa's timeless wisdom fully contemporary through translations of Teresa's words followed by practical interpretations and brief, inviting meditations. In this award-winning book, Teresa of Avila and Don guide you to explore the voice of the Beloved and knowledge of the self, the restlessness of the mind and the care of the body, doubt, loss, intimacy, and more.

An in-depth resource that separates fact from myth about the lives of saints

Saints For Dummies offers information on famous saints (both men and women) from the Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic traditions. With a historical biography on each saint including information on what they are known for, what they did in life to achieve sainthood, and how readers can pray to them in time of need. This easy-to-understand guide reveals that most saints were very common, ordinary, and imperfect human beings with faults and foibles who overcame their shortcomings to become figures of great spiritual and historical significance. You get a unique glimpse into the lives and the character traits of these righteous men and women, as well as future pending saints.

Explains which saints are invoked for specific situations Rev. John Trigilio and Rev. Kenneth Brighenti are the coauthors of Catholicism For Dummies, Women in the Bible For Dummies and John Paul II For Dummies

Whether you're a scholar or just curious about the topic, Saints For Dummies will have you intrigued and informed from the first page.

Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.

In this authoritative and engaging new biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The result is a complex yet sympathetic portrait of the man and the saint. Francis emerges from this account as very much a typical thirteenth-century Italian layman, but one who, when faced with unexpected crises in his personal life, made decisions so radical that they challenge his own society-and ours. Unlike the saint of legend, this Francis never had a unique divine inspiration to provide him with rules for following the teachings of Jesus. Rather, he spent his life reacting to unexpected challenges, before which he often found himself unprepared and uncertain. The Francis who emerges here is both more complex and more conflicted than that of older biographies. His famed devotion to poverty is found to be more nuanced than expected, perhaps not even his principal spiritual concern. Thompson revisits events small and large in Francis's life, including his troubled relations with his father, his contacts with Clare of Assisi, his encounter with the Muslim sultan, and his receiving the Stigmata, to uncover the man behind the legends and popular images.

A tour de force of historical research and biographical writing, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography is divided into two complementary parts-a stand alone biographical narrative and a close, annotated examination of the historical sources about Francis. Taken together, the narrative and the survey of the sources provide a much-needed fresh perspective on this iconic figure. "As I have worked on this biography," Thompson writes, "my respect for Francis and his vision has increased, and I hope that this book will speak to modern people, believers and unbelievers alike, and that the Francis I have come to know will have something to say to them today."

Thérèse of Lisieux has been called the greatest saint of modern times, but some view her spirituality as sentimental and syrupy. Joseph F. Schmidt, FSC, dispels that notion by contending that Thérèse’s “little way” is really the gospel message—a message that can best be understood in the context of her life. Schmidt does a masterful job of weaving together biographical details with Thérèse’s profound insights on God’s love and mercy. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants an introduction to Thérèse’s spirituality as well as for those who desire a deeper appreciation of her “little way”—a way that continues to speak to Catholics today.

A noted spiritual writer seeks answers to life's big questions in the stories of the saints

In All Saints---published in 1997 and already a classic of its kind---Robert Ellsberg told the stories of 365 holy people with great vividness and eloquence. In The Saints' Guide to Happiness, Ellsberg looks to the saints to answer the questions: What is happiness, and how might we find it?

Countless books answer these questions in terms of personal growth, career success, physical fitness, and the like. The Saints' Guide to Happiness proposes instead that happiness consists in a grasp of the deepest dimension of our humanity, which characterizes holy people past and present. The book offers a series of "lessons" in the life of the spirit: the struggle to feel alive in a frenzied society; the search for meaningful work, real friendship, and enduring love; the encounter with suffering and death; and the yearning to grasp the ultimate significance of our lives. In these "lessons," our guides are the saints: historical figures like Augustine, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, and moderns such as Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Henri J. Nouwen. In the course of the book the figures familiar from stained-glass windows come to seem exemplars, not just of holy piety but of "life in abundance," the quality in which happiness and holiness converge.